New South Wales Police Museum Collection

[rlk]

 

[mayserwegener]

Very cool! I keyed right in on the Velours.

 

[Torpedo]

Some pretty dangerous looking chaps there. And dapper too!

 

[fmw]

E. Dalton looks like a serious customer with that scar on his face.

 

[monbla256]

WHAT, NO CAMPDRAFTS That's a neat, neat collection of photos. I would NOT want to be on the OTHER side of the law with a group of guys looking like that chasing my *** Serious looking "officers"
Onward thru the Fog

 

[martinsantos]

Amazing photos!! Tks!

Very tough guys, indeed.

 

[Mobile Vulgus]

Amazing how well dressed they seem compared to criminals today. Most of them would be mistaken for bankers today!! So well dressed for yobs.

 

[Baron Kurtz]

There are two great books on the market that draw on this resource. I haven't heard for sure, but I'm hoping that the next issue of The Chap will include my review of the books: City of Shadows and Crooks Like Us. Both available on Amazon.

bk

 

[mayserwegener]

Are these guys the police? Appears to be two trains of thought.

 

[martinsantos]

Some of the guys look like policemen. Others (like Mr Sidney Kelly), if policemen, would be fine caracters of some Hammett's short stories... The way Kelly looked inside the camera tells very well about the kind of guy we are talking about.

 

[mayserwegener]

I found this online.

Mug shot of De Gracy (sic) and Edward Dalton. Details unknown. Central Police Station, Sydney, around 1920.

Creator: New South Wales. Police Dept.

Date: [c1920]

Format: [Picture] Glass plate negative:

Inscription: Emulsion side:

Place: Central Police Station (Sydney, N.S.W.)

Subject: police detainees and suspects
mug shots
fedoras (hats)



Special Photograph no. 129. A cropped print of this photograph appears in a police photo book from the 1920s, annotated in pencil "magsmen", with no further information offered.
This picture is one of a series of around 2500 "special photographs" taken by New South Wales Police Department photographers between 1910 and 1930. These "special photographs" were mostly taken in the cells at the Central Police Station, Sydney and are, as curator Peter Doyle explains, of "men and women recently plucked from the street, often still animated by the dramas surrounding their apprehension". Doyle suggests that, compared with the subjects of prison mug shots, "the subjects of the Special Photographs seem to have been allowed - perhaps invited - to position and compose themselves for the camera as they liked. Their photographic identity thus seems constructed out of a potent alchemy of inborn disposition, personal history, learned habits and idiosyncrasies, chosen personal style (haircut, clothing, accessories) and physical characteristics."

 

[lolly_loisides]

There are two great books on the market that draw on this resource. I haven't heard for sure, but I'm hoping that the next issue of The Chap will include my review of the books: City of Shadows and Crooks Like Us. Both available on Amazon.

bk

I have both these books. City of Shadows concentrates on the picture stills, where Crooks Like Us tells the story of some of the better known villains in and around Sydney (still lots of good photos though). Of the two, I prefer City of Shadows.

 

[navarre_au]

Are these guys the police? Appears to be two trains of thought.

Not the police - these are images of those who had broken the law. I believe they refer to these as "Special Photographs", that were apparently mostly taken in the cells at the Central Police Station between 1910 and 1930.

 

[James71]

I doubt they are policemen. They would be identified by rank if they were. The fact that the pics were taken in the central lockup in Sydney suggests these were guests of his Majesty.

 

[martinsantos]

The guy at downstairs doesn't look like a criminal... Make me think about what he could be done. A very interesting photography, by the way.

 

[cookie]

The book which illustrated all these crims and their fedoras is about to be made into a crime documentary on the Razor Gangs which terrorised inner city Sydney in the 1920s. Lotsa guys from WWI came home with cocaine habits from being fed the stuff by medical orderlies in the trenches as a cure for "battle fatigue". They provided a steady market for coke into the 20s/30s.
http://www.abc.net.au/dimensions/dimensions_in_time/Transcripts/s485143.htm http://adbonline.anu.edu.au/biogs/A080318b.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_frcvNadtR0

 

[mayserwegener]

Not the police - these are images of those who had broken the law. I believe they refer to these as "Special Photographs", that were apparently mostly taken in the cells at the Central Police Station between 1910 and 1930.

Yes I realized that after I did some searching (see above).

 

[Baron Kurtz]

They're mostly unofficial mug shots, that were circulated as a supplement to the NSW Police Gazette and later as a stand-alone publication, The NSW Criminal Register.

The collection, however, contains much more than just mug shots. Street scenes, photos of ongoing operations, photos illustrating pickpocket techniques, even pics of professional boxers and wrestlers for some reason.

I highly recommend the books.

bk

 

[theinterchange]

Interesting how I never really thought about "gangsters" in Australia, only of bushrangers and the like. I'll have to check out the books mentioned.

Randy

 

[hatophile]

Scary lookin' blokes for sure, but some nice hats on them.